| Sports |
By Ashley Wickham
Wounds
in Solomons yet to heal
THE Regional Assistance Mission to
Solomon Islands (Ramsi) turned four years old last month.
As the landmark was being celebrated by Honiara’s VIPs on July 24,
it was rather noticeable from the body language on display that
there is still tension between certain key players.
Far from being partners in the reconstruction and rebuilding of
Solomon Islands, Ramsi and the Solomon Islands government appear
to be contestants in a popularity contest.
Ramsi needs to look good in Australia while the Solomon Islands
government is struggling under the weight of the controversial
appointment of Julian Moti as attorney-general – among other
issues – to look good in the country.
The Solomon Islands government is obviously revelling in an
interim report of a commission of inquiry into the riots in
Honiara in April last year, which found that Ramsi’s participating
police force (PPF) failed to effectively control the violence.
Commission chairman Brian Brunton, a retired judge from Papua New
Guinea, has been in Melanesia long enough to understand the
peculiar dynamics of “king making” in this part of the world. It
comes through strongly in the report.
New Zealand defence minister Phil Goff’s criticism that the report
focused too much on Ramsi – and his concern about the chagrin that
Ramsi leaders of the time must feel on reading it – is quite
understandable. But some things have to be said.
As pointed out in New Matilda by former Royal Solomon Islands
Police (RSIP) assistant commissioner pf Police Michael Wheatley
(an Australian of Solomon Islands origin), the police leadership
at the time was caught napping!
Large parts of Honiara’s Chinatown could have been saved if the
police had been prepared. Why was that not the case?
The commission noted that the RSIP was firmly under the control of
the PPF, which is led by Australian federal police personnel.
The PPF severed many community networks maintained by local police
when they took control of the RSIP in July 2003.
They did this by ensuring a whole batch of senior police were
displaced, and by demonstrating that they did not trust anyone.
The upper echelons were purged of experienced officers, most of
whom who had just been through some of the most traumatic times of
their career – Bougainville border duties and then the coup of
June 2000.
There are former RSIP officers who can attest to the fact that
when they left there were standard operating procedures to deal
with such things as riots and the local officers should have been
allowed to hit the riot button at police headquarters.
In 2005, Goff, then acting as foreign minister of New Zealand,
told the New Zealand Annual Police Association conference in
Wellington that the RSIP leaders were totally corrupt, its
personnel ill-trained and ineffective and that the force was part
of the problem not the solution.
It is true that several RSIP officers were corrupt or complicit in
militant activities but the majority were not.
One senior officer who tried hard to maintain standard operations
between June 2000 and July 2003 went home virtually penniless
after Ramsi took over.
He was accused of corruption but after nearly three years was
acquitted of charges.
Retained as deputy commissioner, he would certainly have known
what to do on the day of the riots.
Without specific evidence, it will be difficult to find out who
orchestrated the riots.
There are people in town who can talk about campaign tactics used
in Honiara a day or two before the elections that might have
bearing on the issue.
I arrived in Honiara by aircraft from Munda on April 18 just as it
was announced that Snyder Rini was the new prime minister. People
were surprised.
One fellow passenger, who was from Rini’s constituency, seemed
shocked.
Many people saw in Rini the return of an Allan Kemakeza-style
government.
Solomon Islanders wanted a break from the Kemakeza regime which
was generally perceived to be a comprador group facilitating
anything anyone from overseas wanted, including Ramsi, while
enjoying the fruits of Taiwanese beneficence.
Hopes had been raised that there would be a change of government,
and many expected that Job Dudley Tausinga’s more rural-oriented
group would take over in a new coalition involving many new MPs.
Most people awaiting the outcome of the vote in parliament
expected to hear that Tausinga was the new prime minister.
The riot started after it was announced that Rini had been elected
instead.
I believe many people were shocked again when Sogavare did the
goose-step and became prime minister after Rini stood down.
The Brunton commission seems to be on the right track and when
they have time for more discussions and issue their final report,
I believe we will have a useful document that sets the record as
straight as a political record can be.
Ramsi is vital to the social, political and economic life of
Solomon Islands.
Without the stabilising influence it provides, no one would be
investing, not even local investors.
The country would not become bankrupt as it would be propped up by
Taiwan.
But it would languish as an oddity among the island nations which
can and do look after themselves.
The Solomon Islands government would be very seriously amiss if it
tried to curtail Ramsi prematurely.
The mission is needed, in my view, for at least another 15 to 20
years before we can become comfortable that the mindset that
embraced corruption, coups and militancy is no more.
The seeds are still there. People are still using threats of
violence to put pressure on or to relieve pressure from the
Solomon Islands government and each other.
This is why the RSIP has to be brought up to full operational
standing as soon as possible.
It needs to bring back a few of the senior officers who were
shoved aside or disregarded, not necessarily in rank positions,
but in advisory and training positions. Only then will RSIP pride
begin to grow again.
Right now, progress is proving difficult in Solomon Islands
because there are too many unnecessary distractions such as the
Moti issue, firing of government legal advisers, premature
rearming of police, non-procedural appointments and the Sogavare
versus Downer running debate, etc.
People’s trust and confidence in leadership are yet to be restored
to pre-1990 levels
That is, before millions of dollars came into the country and
subverted community and national leadership; before corruption
became rampant and the machinery of government broke down; before
widespread violence on the two main islands broke out and before
the plunder of the treasury by militants, politicians and their
cronies between June 2000 and July 2003.
As for lessons that can be extrapolated from the commission’s
interim report, one thing is certain – just like
“de-Baathification” did not work in Iraq – instead generating
anti-coalition sentiment and driving former soldiers to become
militants – so too it has not worked in the Solomons. –
newmatilda
Note: The writer has had a long career
in the media in Solomon Islands and the region. He is an
independent consultant, analyst and commentator and is active in
civil society networking.
 
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